Expectations in the first two Harry Potter novels.

J.K. Rowling does a great job with creating expectations in the reader, and also in choosing which of these expectation get fulfilled and which do not. We expect Harry and his friends to succeed and we expect them to get what they want. An author, however, cannot fulfill every expectation of readers, or else the novel would be too predictable and therefore boring. For example in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Rowling spends much of the book eluding to Professor Snape being the enemy and the main antagonist of the story. The way he treats Harry and how Harry and his friends respond to this, and the suspicions that they have all lead us as readers expecting Snape to end up being the one trying to steal the stone. This, of course ends up not being fulfilled, instead, the last person we would have expected, Quirell, turns out to be the enemy. An example from Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets is seen with Professor Lockart. Throughout the book he tells many stories and claims to have done many great things in the wizarding world, which have gained him much fame. He is seen as arrogant as well as humorous. Readers may have expected him to have exaggerated some of his stories, but we did not expect him to turn out as sinister as he did. He actually had never done any of those things, instead erasing the memories of the people who actually had. Both of these examples of expectations not being filled makes the books much more exciting. If everything always turned out the way we expected, or the way we wanted the books would not be anywhere near as entertaining as they are.